Morphology and causes of recent peat slides on Skerry Hill,Co. Antrim,Northern Ireland

Two shallow translational slides occurred in blanket peat on Skerry Hill, Co. Antrim, in November 1991 at sites adjacent to slides activated c. 25 years ago. Heavy rainfall, degraded drainage ditches and slope morphology are considered to have been important factors contributing to peat instability. The failure planes are located close to the peat base, at the boundary between less compact fibrous peat above and more compact humified peat below. The preservation of large blocks and rafts of intact peat and the limited amount of liquefied peat in the debris tongues is thought to reflect the degree of peat humification. There is also some evidence to suggest that the peat was probably undersaturated at the time of failure and this may have assisted preservation of intact peat blocks. Tension cracks, resulting from either short-term desiccation or long-term slow mass movement, are thought to have facilitated the rapid transfer of heavy rain to the subsurface peat, causing high pore-water pressures and lubrication of the failure planes. Vegetation recolonization will probably follow a pattern similar to that observed on the adjacent earlier slides.     

Pb---Nd---Sr isotopic constraints on the origin of the Caledonian Bindal Batholith, central Norway

The Bindal Batholith is the largest granitoid batholith in the Scandinavian Caledonides, emplaced prior to or during the Scandian collision in a complex scenario of Ordovician to Middle Silurian nappe assembly. The Bindal Batholith ranges in compositon from mafic gabbro to leucogranite, but granites and granodiorites are by far the most abundant rock types.

Pb---Pb, Sm---Nd and Rb---Sr isotopic results from plutons of the batholith constrain the origin of the Bindal Batholith magmas. The isotope results suggest the presence of several source reservoirs, giving rise to the granitoid magmas. Both a source relatively depleted in U, Th and Rb and enriched in Sm, a source enriched in U and Rb and depleted in Sm, a source enriched in Th and Rb, but depleted in Sm, and, finally, a source enriched in Th and Sm, but depleted in Rb, is indicated by the initial compositions of the radiogenic isotope ratios. It is suggested that the depleted source reservoirs were contemporaneous depleted mantle and mantle derived rocks in the nappe sequences, that the enriched source reservoir was sediments derived from Proterozoic upper crust of Baltic Shield affinity and that the Th-enriched source reservoir was various Proterozoic rocks, in a lower crustal position, of either Baltic or Laurentian affinity.     

Diagenetic alterations in temperate shelf carbonates from southeastern Australia

Temperate shelf carbonates form in cool marine waters and have skeletal and mineralogical compositions which are different from their tropical counterparts. They commonly lack non-skeletal grains and are often composed of low- and high-magnesium calcite with subordinate aragonite. Many of the aragonitic components found in tropical carbonates, such as corals, ooids, blue-green algae and lime mud, are absent.

Temperate shelf carbonates undergo diagenesis in marine waters with lower carbonate saturation than do tropical carbonates, and are exposed to cool climates with moderate to low rainfall. Marine cementation is rare because of low carbonate saturations in the surrounding waters. However, aragonite and high-magnesium calcite cements have been reported forming under specialized conditions associated with biogenic precipitation, submarine methane and sulphate-reducing bacteria, and more commonly in the intertidal environment where evaporation has increased carbonate concentrations.

In Pleistocene and Tertiary temperate shelf carbonates from southeastern Australia, evidence of marine diagenesis is rare to absent. Diagenetic stabilization of aragonite and high-magnesium calcite has taken from 80,000 y to 1 My, or longer, during subaerial exposure. This is slower than rates reported from tropical climates. A general lack of aragonite in some facies within these temperate carbonates leads to a lack of secondary porosity and only sparse low-magnesium calcite cement, even after prolonged fresh-water diagenesis. However, with lengthy exposure and under the right climatic conditions, karstic solution and calcrete precipitation can occur.

In sequences containing siliciclastic clays, pyrite and glauconite, abundant iron is present in interstitial waters leading to the precipitation of ferroan calcite cements in the phreatic and shallow burial environments, and to the substitution of iron for magnesium in stabilizing high-magnesium calcite skeletal material.

A unique void-filling, micritic internal sediment occurs in discrete layers in many of the Tertiary temperate shelf carbonate sequences in southeastern Australia. This internal sediment is localized as a pore-filling material above permeability barriers such as fine-grained sediments or volcanics, and above paleo-water tables which formed during periods of subaerial exposure. It is a feature of the vadose zone and lithifies to form a dense micritic low-magnesium calcite cement with characteristic pink/brown coloration, often associated with erosion surfaces and nodule beds.

Dolomite is uncommon in the southeastern Australian temperate shelf carbonates. It forms associated with preferential fluid pathways or mixing zones. Ferroan dolomite forms in siliciclastic clay-rich carbonates in the shallow burial environment. The ubiquitous fine, evaporite-related dolomite so common in tropical carbonates is absent.     

Modelling the physical and chemical changes in roofing slate caused by weathering processes

This research identifies the changes which takes place in roofing slate due to natural exposure and tries to replicate these changes experimentally. Traditional methods of testing, used by the British and other national standards, concentrate on the properties of unweathered samples and give no information on the relative durability of the different slates. Instead of concentrating on the initial properties, this research focuses on changes in the properties in order to assess durability. The effects of natural weathering were assessed by comparing old, used slates with new slates from the same or a similar source. The new slates were then weathered experimentally by repeated cycles of wetting and drying, and the increase in water absorbency compared with that observed in naturally weathering. Mineralogical differences due to both natural and experimental weathering were also measured using X-ray diffraction analysis. It was found that the effects of experimental weathering, using repeated cycles of wetting and drying, are similar to those observed in natural weathering. These include increased water absorbency and loss of crystallinity of the principal minerals. The greatest changes are found in those slates which are the most vulnerable to weathering, making it possible to identify poor quality slates.     

Extreme wave events and sampling variability

Ocean Dynamics - Wave field data are affected not only by the accuracy of instruments recording them but also by sampling variability, an uncertainty due to the limited number of observations. For...     

Stratoid granites of Madagascar: structure and position in the Panafrican orogeny

Abstract

Stratoid granites constitute a major feature of the Precambrien basement of Madagascar. A detailed structural study was carried out NNW of Antananarivo. New zircon isotopic data on a typical alkaline granite ascertain their Panafrican age (585 Ma). The sheets of granites metric to kilometric of thickness, are interlayered with migmatitic gneisses and amphibolites. Their internal structures, determined by anisotropy of magnetic susceptibility measurements, everywhere yield foliations gently dipping to the west, and lineations striking WSW-ENE. These structures were mostly acquired at the magmatic stage in the granites, in the country-rocks they resulted from high-temperature plastic deformation.

The very constant structural pattern, interpreted in terms of shear deformation of a section of the crust, as well as the low P (P = 4 - 5 kb) - high T (T # 750°C) conditions, suggest that the emplacement of the stratoid granites was coeval with a late-orogenic stage in the Panafrican Mozambique belt, and possibly linked to the thinning of the lithosphere.     

Les paléokarsts du Hainaut (Belgique)

Résumé

Les calcaires d’âge carbonifère de la province du Hainaut, en Belgique, presque toujours cachés par une couverture méso-cénozoïque et quaternaire sont intensément karstifiés.

Endokarsts et cryptokarsts caractérisent une morphologie karstique classique à laquelle s’ajoute une forme bien particulière d’altération en masse du calcaire que nous définissons sous le vocable de “fantôme de roche”.

Ces paléokarsts datent pour la majeure partie du Crétacé. Cependant, lorsque le manteau tertiaire et quaternaire recouvre directement le Paléozoïque et est plus ou moins perméable, le processus de karstification peut se poursuivre. Suite aux pompages industriels ou domestiques qui rabattent la nappe aquifère, une réactivation du processus karstique entraîne la formation de fontis à jour (appelés dans la région, puits naturels).

La localisation de ces formes karstiques cachées a une importance économique considérable, tant comme obstacle à l’exploitation et à la qualité de la pierre calcaire qu’à l’implantation des ouvrages d’art. Mais leur attrait scientifique ne cède en rien à l’impact économique. Les remplissages sédimentaires de ces paléokarsts constituent en effet des témoins irremplaçables de périodes continentales et permettent de cerner l’évolution paléogéographique locale avec la possibilité de reconstitution d’anciens réseaux hydrographiques.     

东太平洋水合物海岭钻井沉积物铁硫化物的磁学特征及其意义

对ODP(大洋钻探Ocean Drilling Program)204航次在水合物海岭南峰钻取的1245B、1249C、1251B和1252A孔岩心进行磁学分析,结合自生黄铁矿集合体结果探讨沉积物中的铁硫化物的磁学特征及其与甲烷渗漏、水合物赋存的关系。结果表明：4个钻孔岩心中磁性矿物含量总体不高,主要为中、低矫顽力的软磁性矿物,载磁矿物为亚铁磁性的磁铁矿、胶黄铁矿和磁黄铁矿。沉积物中自生黄铁矿是甲烷厌氧氧化(AOM)作用下硫酸盐还原的主要产物,减缓了磁性矿物含量、颗粒大小差异对χARM、HIRM和SIRM/χ的影响,加大了χ/χARM、ARM/SIRM对磁性矿物含量的敏感度。自生黄铁矿集合体含量随深度的变化可能反映古代AOM活动。在甲烷渗漏、水合物赋存背景下,胶黄铁矿和磁黄铁矿的赋存可能是局部与水合物相关的氧化还原作用产物,也可能是早更新世末、中更新世以来某一时期硫酸盐甲烷转换带(SMTZ)快速上移的产物。早更新世沉积层内连续的胶黄铁矿沉积反映了孔隙水中HS-不足的还原成岩环境,与甲烷渗漏、水合物的赋存无关。     

The regional setting of the Woodlawn deposit

The Woodlawn zinc‐lead‐copper deposit is one of a number of stratabound volcanogenic base‐metal deposits in the eastern part of the Lachlan Fold Belt. These deposits are commonly bandned and chemically zoned. They are copper‐rich at the base and lead‐zinc‐(barium)‐rich at the top. Alternatively, discrete copper‐rich, lead‐zinc‐rich and barium‐rich bodies may be developed. Oxide facies variants have been recognised at a number of localities. The deposits were formed in or adjacent to volcanic rifts during the Late Silurian. The Woodlawn deposit is located within the Captains Flat‐Goulburn Synclinorial Zone within a sequence of quartz‐feldspar porphyry, agglomerate, tuff, tuffaceous shale and black shale.